Zika virus presents female Olympic athletes with awful dilemma

Let's say you're a female athlete who, though years of hard work and dedication, has ascended to the top of her sport. It's quite possible you have two goals in life that stand head and shoulders above all others: Compete in the Olympics, and give birth to a healthy child one day in the future.

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have already been tainted by fears about the Zika virus, which is rapidly spreading through Central and South America. The health scare presents female athletes with a potential choice their male counterparts don't have to face. Is competing in the Olympics worth potentially risking the health of your future child?

U.S. Women's National Team goalkeeper Hope Solo put this in stark perspective when she told Sports Illustrated on Tuesday morning that she wouldn't go to Rio for the Games if she had to choose today.

“I would never take the risk of having an unhealthy child. I don’t know when that day will come for Jerramy and me, but I personally reserve my right to have a healthy baby," Solo said, referencing husband Jerramy Stevens. "No athlete competing in Rio should be faced with this dilemma. Female professional athletes already face many different considerations and have to make choices that male professional athletes don’t."

The 34-year-old national team star further underscored the unique choice female athletes have to grapple with amid Zika fears.

“We accept these particular choices as part of being a woman, but I do not accept being forced into making the decision between competing for my country and sacrificing the potential health of a child, or staying home and giving up my dreams and goals as an athlete," Solo said. "Competing in the Olympics should be a safe environment for every athlete, male and female alike.”

The Zika virus itself doesn't typically cause severe symptoms, as Mashable science editor Andrew Freedman explains here. But among pregnant women, there is evidence Zika virus can cause microcephaly, a rare birth defect characterized by incomplete brain development in babies. Microcephaly can also cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads.

And therein lies the rub for Solo and other female Olympians.

The CDC's resource page on Zika and pregnancy recommends that pregnant women in any trimester "should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing." The CDC adds that women who are even thinking about becoming pregnant should consult a doctor before traveling and take extra precautions to avoid mosquito bites, which typically spread the disease.

Complicating matters further is that there is no known treatment or vaccine for Zika, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms typically pass in about a week, and less than a quarter of those who contract the virus show any symptoms at all.

The Zika virus has so far been reported in more than two dozen countries. It is spread largely by mosquitos, but in rare cases can also be transmitted through sex. The CDC announced earlier this month that men who have traveled to countries with Zika cases and are the partners of pregnant women should use condoms or abstain from sex for the duration of their partners' pregnancies.

The Rio Olympics begin Aug. 5 — less than six months from now.

It's uncommon for female athletes to compete in the Olympics while pregnant — some who did so didn't even know they were with child at the time. And, as noted in a Los Angeles Times piece Tuesday, the virus has so far raised more questions than answers for pregnant women.

There's so far no medical evidence to indicate risk to a baby born to a women who had Zika years prior. If you're a female athlete competing in Rio and happen to get Zika, then become impregnated years later, you may not be at any risk of birth defects. Hence the CDC travel advisory for pregnant women only.

But it's easy to minimize risk from afar. Solo on Tuesday illustrated that female Olympians are now faced with a gruesome prospect — no matter how remote the possibility of a child born with microcephaly might be — that their male counterparts don't have to grapple with in the same way.

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